The scientists' remaining tasks include deciphering the precise message each taste stimulus transmits, which would foster a more scientific approach to taste modifications than the "throw in a little of this or that" method now universally used by food producers, cooks and hapless diners.
"He's an excellent son, husband and father, who has an extreme taste for body modification.
The method to investigate the effect of odors on taste is basically a modification of the proboscis extension response assay (PER) [68], [69].
But Freedman doesn't walk us through the scenario where Wendy's or Burger King launches a similar fish burger, one that's fried, salted and sugared, that has triple the tartar sauce, that because of these modifications tastes better.
Readers should consult Field's own discussion for a taste of how such a modification might proceed.
One common arrangement is that of eight productive forms of prakriti (the unmanifest, intellect, egoism, and five fine elements: sound, smell, form or colour, taste, and touch) and 16 modifications (five organs of perception, five organs of action, mind, and five gross elements: ether, earth, fire, water, and air), and purusha (person).
But, Sorenson says, "If genetic modification (GM) produces tastes or other values that we think are worth incorporating, we won't hesitate to use it".
The machinery, involving BMPs, WNTs, and FGFs, was probably in place for other functions, e.g. forming sensory structures related to modern taste buds, and needed only modifications to enable formation of mineralized structures (Fraser et al. 2010).
